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Rating: 
Summary: Irrelevant staging
Review: Everything about the staging seems totally irrelevant to the subject of the opera, and there is no way to acquire any insight into what message, if any, the staging is attempting to convey. I would not have bought it if I had known it would be like it is. I endorse Joe McLellan's review.
Rating: 
Summary: Modernist Masterpiece
Review: Having seen this production live in (then East) Berlin and in London, as well as on video, I disagree with the dismissive attitude of the preceding reviewer. This is a masterful video--arguably a candidate for "top 10" desert island lists.It is a splendid example of the power of "contemporary" resettings of great operas--and great myths. Orfeo, generally surrounded by abstract or elegantly classical sets, becomes a young man in a leather jacket whose girlfriend is killed in a car crash, and whose life becomes a confusing tangle as a result. In the end he turns inward to music--traversing a fragmented urban landscape with an electric guitar. There is nothing cloying or cheap about it; one feels the immediacy and concreteness of death, and of alienation, as we experience it today. The overall ethos is that of late East German productions, which had some critical bite with respect to modernity. As for the music, this opera is all about Orfeo, and Kowolski sings with not a hint of pandering (he is, after all, a countertenor) and with searing intensity. Every moment of the performance is gripping. Despite the mythic theme and the modernist staging, this is, in my opinion, one of the most compelling muscial and dramatic performances of an operatic role ever recorded. For that alone, this DVD is worth the modest price. Five stars--no doubt.
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